The Fibonacci Potencies Series: update, discussion and conclusions

This seems a very interesting technique for difficult, long standing cases, or for the intricated cases; it needs and deserves to be explored more in depth.

All this shows that, although timing is important for optimal results, and that repetitions are better done only when the action of the previous dose has stopped, the system is quite supple and forgiving. There is no need to have a harsh, dictatorial timing prescription, but sloppiness either in prescription or explanation is never welcome.

Availability to the patient for guidance is of paramount importance, the technology of email has been an invaluable tool.

Speed of action

I can confirm what I wrote one year ago, that the speed of action is remarkably high as compared to that of C and LM/Q potencies.

There is no protracted wait to see the possible action a few weeks or months later, as Kent described.

Either there is a reaction and you follow it, or there is none and you know, once the series is finished, that it was the wrong remedy, no harm done, not too much time wasted.

Why finish the series if there is no reaction to the first few doses?

It has become very clear that the appropriate or adequate potency at which the patient will first react is totally unpredictable. The conventional rules of adapting the potency to the patient’s vitality or to the energy of the disease are at best indicative. This accounts for many email discussions where one potency of the seemingly indicated remedy was given, no reaction, then another potency without results, then yet another one and finally in despair the last one available that settled everything; you can write any potency anywhere in this example, and shuffle the potencies in any order.

Using the F series, it became obvious that each patient and each stage of disease will be covered by a different level of potency, hence partial cures and recurrences when the proper potency is not attained.

And once more, there is nothing new! Parimal Banerji (Advanced homeopathy and its materia medica) works this way: any remedy will work at some potency for some pathology but not at an other potency; each remedy has specific indications at specific levels of potentisation.

By going through ALL possible potencies with an F series, every single level of reaction will be covered, unless it is anchored by another pathology that needs another remedy; when that other remedy has acted, the anchored level is freed and can now react to a repeat prescription of the previous remedy. This is why some patients needed the same remedy prescribed at different phases of their treatment.

Going through an F series is like exploring all the stations on a radio, moving the cursor from one frequency to the other, but not jumping form one to another. In doing so, you will be able to listen to each and every station that is broadcasting without missing a single one. When there are interferences, you will miss a few stations, but then you remove the interferences (with another remedy) and can again “clean the airwaves” with the first remedy.

When the remedy is the Simillimum at that time, the amelioration seems to “hover”, remains stable and waits patiently for the next dose that will bring the patient to the next level. Therefore we can indulge in waiting a bit longer, be “sloppy” on our timing.

When the remedy is partial, either because we did not find the Simillimum or because we are dealing with an obstacle to cure or a partial level, after the initial amelioration, some symptoms will reappear or new symptoms will appear. The next dose of the partial remedy will refine the situation until not needed any more and clarify the next remedy prescription.

An example is G.M.F who came with symptoms of fibromyalgia, depression, headaches, PMS, etc,? The prescription was Carcinosin 8C to 89C. Three weeks later, she comes in to report, having taken only the first 3 doses. She says (reproduced here with her permission): after the 8C, slept better straight away, a few short anxious moments in waves, then they are gone; the head is clear, not foggy, the colour is back in the face, there is no more fibromyalgia; 13C taken after feeling the effects were tapering: the sleep is even better, more energy, head even clearer, calm; able to stand off against mother (issues of smothering and overbearing) and it was easy, never before have been able to do that; tapering again, went to 21C and immediately better again; the fibromyalgia symptoms started to come back when the tapering occurred but were immediately removed with the 21C; the PMS is gone, no breast pain, no back pain, no irritability. There is a past history of rape at the age of 12, the emotions were still vivid and active during the consultation; did not even think about it since the first powder and when I asked her to go back to that place, there was nothing, only numbness, does not feel anything about it any more; dreamt about her father, said sorry to him, talked to him and got a big cuddle; even her husband was telling her “take the next powder” when he saw her coming down again. And all this in less than 3 weeks with potencies nobody ever uses, especially with a nosode. The tapering phenomenon is present despite the extremely deep action of Carcinosin; therefore, I warned her that we will probably have to give her another remedy at some point in the future.

It has been suggested that the different potencies of the F series were similar to quantum leaps, that we were jumping form one potency with curative properties to another with other properties.

That would negate the multiplication effect (5C x 8C = 40C, 40C x 13C = 520C, etc,?). A publication I read a few years ago (but I could not find the article although I believe it was in Homeopathic Links) did indeed show that potencies work in clusters; the examples I seem to remember were 6C to 30C, then 200C to 10M and higher, meaning that 30C and 10M would have the same frequency, the same field of action, but a different intensity. That would indeed explain the high rate of success of the French homeopaths who until recently did not have access to potencies higher than 30C but managed to treat mental, emotional and psychiatric cases very well, albeit with multiple repetitions.

This is one way to look at those potencies:

The French concentric potencies

The Kentian concentric potencies

Of course, those can also be seen this way:

and

which are spirals, like the Fibonacci series, with the difference that the Fibonacci spiral is mathematically and geometrically perfect, the others being approximate spirals.

And to go from one potency to another on a spiral, you must go through all the intermediate ones; you cannot jump from one to the other as is the case in concentric circles.

The multiplying effect is creating the amount of energy needed to fill the space-time continuum between two threshold potencies that are further apart as they increase, with more volume (time and space) between two higher potencies, hence the need for more time between two doses as the potencies increase.

This, in my understanding, removes the possibility of quantum leaps of potencies. The F series follows a simple geometrical, exponential progression.

I know, it reads like pseudo-scientific blah-blah with the use of big words and no substance, so let’s try to use simple language: one single potency, at whatever level, will have a limited action (it can be enough to produce a cure though, as 200 years of practice have demonstrated, by removing the major pathology and allowing the normalised physiology to take over and cure the rest; but you need to hit the right potency). By giving one potency after the other, at the appropriate levels (threshold potencies) and in the appropriate order, they reinforce each other, enhance each other’s action so that the total, final effect is way bigger than the simple mathematical addition. Compare that with politics: one man, one vote, what will one vote more or less do? But when most of the voters chose a certain party, life in that country will never be the same. Excellent! But to achieve that, you need each and every single vote synchronised to act in unison.

Better?

Depth of action

How deep can the F series go? Can it really eradicate old emotional roots? Can it take care of very serious physical problems, those we call “one sided diseases”, the problems that have become independent from the normal physiology and cannot be dealt with any more?

Let?s first revisit a case described in the first paper.

V.R. comes from a broken family, was molested, submitted to emotional blackmail, a forced marriage and more. I prescribed Natrum Muriaticum 5C to 89C: at 5C, there was a reappearance of old memories; at 13C,? the urge to cry, old memories but a feeling of healing; at 21C, the reappearance of a very old backache; then a sort of regression therapy started: at 34C went back to teenager?s emotions and memories; at 55C back to 10 -13 years old; at 89C back to 2 ? 8 years old; all this with ?hurt and soul soreness? (her words) but a sense of ?purging the emotions?; her actual memory has now increased, her body feels lighter and she has been able to loose weight. Isn?t that the Law of Hering in all its splendour? I then lost track of her until around May 2009, when she sent me, through another patient, this message: ?I have been perfectly well since finishing the powders and did not need any more treatment. I received the ability to deal fully with my past and not let it influence my life any more. Thank you for your help?. Some time later she accompanied another patient and popped in to say hello: she was a transformed woman, slim, slender and beautiful, irradiating confidence; in fact, I did not recognise her at all, she had to tell me who she was.

I described the case of G.M.F previously (fibromyalgia, depression, extremely fast amelioration in 3 weeks and only the first 3 doses of Carcinosin 8C, 13C, and 21C); not only did the remedy work extremely fast on the physical aspect, but only halfway down the series, many emotional issues were resolved: rape, a smothering, overbearing, guilt producing mother, unresolved issues with the father.

A recurrent feature in some cases was the phenomenon of tapering of the effects of the doses, as I already discussed. When this happened, it has almost invariably signified that the remedy was good and correct but not completely curative and that another, deeper, prescription will be needed to anchor the cure. This is very important as it allows predicting the need for another remedy and gives the knowledge, to the practitioner and to the patient, that we are still in a “work in process” state, a dynamic evolution that should not be stopped lest everything recurs.

J.S. is another good illustration: 74 years old male coming with the diagnosis of myeloproliferative disease (but not leukaemia), with anaemia, weight loss, multiple food allergies and some OCD behaviours. After receiving all the blood tests at a later date, the final diagnosis was even more complicated, a mix of haemolytic anaemia, megaloblastic anaemia and myelodysplastic anaemia. WHY? It did not make any sense! A repeated detailed history revealed that the patient was abundantly in contact with lead during a motor car apprenticeship and while working for years with molten plastics, where lead was used too. Lead is a known myelotoxic and many of his symptoms repertorised Plumbum Metallicum, so he was given an F series 5C to 89C.

He came back 3 months later to give me an update: his haemoglobin has moved up from 96g/L to 98g/L to 101g/L; he can now eat fruit and other foods he was “allergic” to, his weight is increasing, has an enormous appetite, no weakness except a bit in the calves, the OCD is a lot better; some very old moles on the abdomen are disappearing; his symptoms are variable and changing but he insists he never has a bad day any more, only that some days are very good, some are less good but none is bad. And amazingly, this is only after the first 3 doses of Plumbum (5C, 8C and 13C). I regret we did not perform a hair mineral analysis, it would have been interesting.

Another remarkable fact that emerged is the ability of the so-called low potencies, 3C, 5C, to stir the patients so deeply, including mental and emotional symptoms and signs as well as very serious physical pathologies. We have always been taught in theory that low potencies are more physical and superficial and high potencies more M/E and deeper acting.

Yet the French homeopaths, using potencies from 3C to 30C have described similar situations, including psychiatric cures with 30C only.

This brings me back again to the notion of “threshold potencies”.

Analysing my cases, it appeared that:

– any potency within the F series can act at any level, be it physical, mental, emotional or spiritual

– there is no way to foresee which potency will have which action

– some potencies in some patients seem to have no activity whatsoever

– some patients will steadily improve while the potencies increase

– other patients will experience haphazardous jumps in better health

This puzzled me for a long time until I started comparing the patient’s clinical situation to a radio, as written before. Starting on one side, you move the dial towards the other side; in doing that, you go through all the stations that are broadcasting at that time, if they have something to broadcast, without missing any single one. The F potencies can be compared to the big, nationwide stations; they are unavoidable although they might be silent at times; you make your way from one station to the next one, each one giving you the right direction and the right boost towards the next one, which you cannot reach easily without going through the previous one; hence the nickname “threshold”: each potency/station is the opening, the gate to a series of symptoms and signs/programmes and music.

In between those major stations, you have the local radios, the radio amateurs, the radio pirates; all of them together, including the white noise between the stations and the silent stations are a typical representation of the patient?s clinical situation. By moving in an orderly manner from one to the other, the correct remedy which has now a single, unique “variable potency”, can take care of all the problems. The “vibrational” or “energetic” status of any physical, mental or emotional problem can be located at any level in that variable potency, low or high. Please read again F.W?s email as a demonstration of the power of a 5C. When the “variable potency”, boosted in its trajectory in a regular manner by the different “threshold” potencies in the correct order, reaches that specific vibrational/energetic level, the problem is taken care of. In the next paragraph you will read the case of M.M.B, which will illustrate that notion again.

This explains:

– The success of the old school of low potencies using 3C, 5C, 7C, 9C, 12C, 15C, 18C, 24C and 30C; finally Hugues is vindicated and can make peace with Kent!

– The reason why some problems that should be covered by a high potency in theory do react only to a lower one, and reciprocally

– The findings of Parimal Banerji that some pathology will react to a specific potency but not to another one even though the remedy is perfectly indicated

– The speed and depth of results I have had with complicated cases, some of them presented in this paper

What about the very sensitive patients, the ones I previously recommended still using LM/Q potencies? I dared, as I described in the paragraph about aggravations. Using the LM/Q methodology of multiple dilution glasses, I managed to increase the speed of evolution while keeping the aggravations to a minimum.

Opening the case and removing obstacles

Many cases in my practice are so complicated, of so long duration, having had so many different treatments that it becomes difficult to know how to start, how to approach the patient.

That is when the notions of ?what has to be treated now?, ?what is bothering the patient now? and ?what does the patient want or need now? come in full force.

This relates to the often cited technique of “peeling the layers like an onion” (see the paragraph about ?wrong remedies?): we deal with the actual situation, when that is cleared, we take care of the previous one that lead to this one, and we continue that way until we reach the core problem.

Even when the core problem is clear and known from the beginning, the proper treatment might not be working. A few patients came in after having been treated unsuccessfully by eminent homeopaths whom I know and trust fully. The roots of their problems were often emotional like abuse, rape, rejection or purely physical like the case of J.S presented earlier (myelodysplasia and Plumbum); the remedies were very clear and the prescriptions spot on, yet no results. The reasoning was that in order to survive and deal with those situations, many defences, behaviours and at times physical ailments had to be created; those layers prevented the remedy to reach the core issue or blocked its potential action. The indicated remedy “bounces back” upon layers, strata of other pathologies.

Most present in nicely arranged “onion peel” layers that can be eradicated one after the other.

The advantage I found in using an F series is that with the correct remedy for that layer of pathology, it is totally removed, completely baring the next layer and making the next prescription clear whereas with regular C potencies there are at times residual symptoms that can confuse the next step. And using LM/Q potencies to go through layers is too slow.

Some cases have their layers of pathology very intricated, with often one layer locking the others in place.

?

At times it is possible to remove the whole layer, even in its intricacies: all the symptoms then can change and the remedies we thought would be indicated are replaced by others.

At other times, the situation resembles more an archaeological dig: one piece is removed with one instrument/remedy, another part emerges, is removed with another instrument/remedy, then other parts and back to the first again, and so on in an almost unpredictable manner.

Another image might be more close to home: coloured play dough for children; it always end up with mixing all the different colours together in a beautiful sphere with intermingling lines and masses of different colours and consistencies. Fortunately we can buy new play dough.

Let’s illustrate with a few cases.

H.C had presenting symptoms of multiple allergies, respiratory, food allergies, ENT allergies and chronic fatigue syndrome. Emotional roots came up clearly: rigid upbringing, never allowed to be sick, but lived until recently with the delusion she had a happy family and childhood, and many other emotional and physical symptoms. She was first seen in May 2003. The first three remedies were Staphysagria, Ignatia and Natrum Muriaticum with good partial results, more details came up in her history. Then Carcinosin, Nux Vomica, repeat Carcinosin, Lac Humanum, Hura Braziliensis, Aconite, Aurum Muriaticum, Palladium, Lac Maternum, Nux Vomica again, Staphysagria again, Natrum Muriaticum again, Golden Topaz, Carcinosin again, Sepia, Pulsatilla, Medorrhinum, Sepia again then Sulphuric Acid that brought back the final core issue. All those remedies were taken either in C potency, liquid, or in LM/Q.

In March 2009, the final Ignatia 3C to 55C was prescribed and that ended the case (she needed some Ortho-Bionomy and an osteopathic adjustment too).

Of course the first reaction to such a description is “zigzagging”, “sloppy management”, “poor case taking”, etc,? Each remedy was, at the time of prescription, absolutely indicated (within my skills) and brought forward old, forgotten, inactive symptoms and signs while removing more recent ones. Almost each visit started with ?I am a lot better, but??. We travelled back in time, admittedly through the scenic road and not the freeway, until everything that had to be dealt with was dealt with. It is impossible to know with certainty, but I feel should I have known and used the F series 6 years ago, some phases would have been very much shortened and the whole case would have been solved a lot faster.

M.M.B is another patient with an intricated situation, physical, emotional and spiritual. A very interesting feature is that she remembers 13 past lives, 13 reincarnations. And common features are present in almost all of them: persecution, cruelty, torture, violent death by decapitation, fire or mauled by animals. In her present incarnation, the persecution is active again albeit through more ?civilised? channels, but with the same emotional content; she has not been tortured or killed (yet) but her physical complaints are remarkably similar to what would be expected if you?d survive the sword, the fire, the tiger, etc,?

Whether reincarnation, previous lives, metempsychosis is real or a figment of one’s imagination is not up for discussion; if it is part of the patient’s description of symptoms and signs it has to be taken into account.

After some mucking around, the remedy Carcinosin was chosen and had to be taken up to 233C until its indication vanished (temporarily?). While going through that series, an accidental discovery was made: some annoying symptoms were temporarily but consistently ameliorated by a piece of chocolate or some chocolate cake.

Reading the materia medica of Chocolate showed it covered lots of aspects of her case, so this was to be the next remedy, 3C to 233C. In the midst of that series, a dental fistula appeared, annoying little symptom, purely local. Calcarea Sulphurica should cover that and as we were playing with F series we decided she would take it 5C to 34C while interrupting the Chocolate for a few days. Lo and behold, the fistula got better but so did other symptoms too, deep ones. We decided to continue the series up to 233C and the removal of deep physical and emotional problems is continuing. Interestingly, the amelioration from the Chocolate seems to be still there, waiting for the series to continue, which points towards the fact it is a/the/one good Simillimum. The choice of the high end point of 233C is explained by the enormous timeframe that has to be covered.

This is an example of a remedy exposing another layer, through which yet another one appears.

Zigzag treatments, layers, partial treatments, intercurrent remedies, now there is a logical explanation about what all this is exactly and how to use the situation to the patient?s advantage: intrication and Fibonacci series.

Constitutional treatments

When a remedy is deemed to be the Simillimum and at the same time is the patient’s so-called constitutional remedy, then not only is the cure of the actual problem achieved but the state of health should become optimal.

Using the F series for constitutional treatment only seemed at first to be overkill; after all, 150 years of doing exactly that with 1, 2, or 3 single potencies cannot be wrong.

So, nosy as I am and unable to resist a challenge, I decided to try a few “?constitutional” prescriptions and as the Law of Occurrences prescribes, a few patients came in, otherwise healthy but wanting to be at their best, with some specifically wanting their “constitution to be taken care of”.

Remedies were given up to 89C and, not unexpectedly, not much change happened, with the positive spin towards the patient, being able to tell them ?see how healthy you are!?

I then decided to put my money where my mouth is and to take my own constitutional remedy: you will be able to read the transcript of this journey in the chapter: “Silica: a personal encounter with the Fibonacci series” in the book(let) that will condense and summarize both papers.

In a nutshell: over the years, I repeatedly took Silica many times, in all potencies from 6C to 50M (and have eaten my share of sand as a child) with almost no effect whatsoever. With the F series, going up to 89C, I did experience physical changes (no, my hair did not grow back, darn!), relief of chronic pain, extraordinary dreams, a quietening of mood as if I was in permanent meditative state, unbelievable. I have then added 144C and 233C for the sake of experimentation.

The bottom line is that despite having the proper constitutional remedy and despite the multiple and different potencies, nothing but the F series has been able to give me the ?clean slate? state I am in now. Maybe I should rename the F series “the Mr. Clean of Homeopathy”.

Administration of the remedies

Over the last year I continued experimenting with different methods of taking the remedies. I use single dose powders so that my patients have only a limited supply of remedies, but using regular globules would be exactly the same.

1. Dry dose: according to Organon 4 and still used successfully by many practitioners; take the dose, wait until no more change, no more evolution, then go to the next potency; or if there is no change whatsoever, wait 24-48 hours and go to the next potency. It is simple, clear, no fuss and it works.

2. Semi-dry, wet dose: what I called Organon 4 and a half: the powder is dissolved in a teaspoon of water; it is basically a dry dose but in more volume, pre-moisturised instead of waiting for the saliva to do it, reaching more of the mucosa, having a better absorption and a better effect, a stronger transmission of information using the vector of acupuncture meridians (see my other paper “Transmission of energetic information” for detailed explanations). The main advantage of this method is that it involves the patient into preparing his medicine, it is active participation, not passively swallowing what was ordered.

3. Liquid dose: Organon 5 and 6; the powder is dissolved in a glass of water (~ 250 mls) and either a drop, a teaspoon or a sip are taken; when the effect stabilises or starts fading away, repeat after stirring until there is no more reaction; then move to the next potency, same way. Sensitive patients use multiple dilution glasses and work their way backwards, the same technique as used with the LM/Q potencies.

4. Dry and liquid: my colleague Meridy Brown has used a combination technique of 1 dry dose (1 globule or ? of the powder) followed by teaspoons from a glass with 1 globule or the second half of the powder dissolved in it. Her comments are that the dry dose creates a clearer and faster awareness, an immediate reaction that then needs to be fine-tuned and completed by small increments until the whole effect of that potency level is achieved. I have only done that so far with 3 patients and, at the time of writing, have not yet received any feedback, so I cannot compare and comment. A case can be made that it might speed up the evolution at each level of potency. I see this method as useful in very complicated cases of long duration with long and intense pathological past, where so much has to be mopped away that insisting at each stage of potency is indicated; where in ?usual? patients, the return to normal will take care of the residual small problems, in those intricated cases some external help to finish the cleaning is warranted. Experimentation and time will tell.

About the author

Joe Rozencwajg

Dr. Joseph (Joe) Rozencwajg, MD, PhD, NMD, OMD was born in Belgium in 1951. After medical school, he went on to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a surgeon. He subsequently learned Acupuncture, Homeopathy, TCM, Nutrition, Flower Remedies, Aromatherapy, Naturopathy, Reiki and other modalities. He has a PhD in Homeopathy and one in Natural Medical Sciences as well as a Doctorate in Naturopathy and one in Osteopathy. Dr. Joe lives in New Plymouth, New Zealand where he practices exclusively Natural Medicine at his clinic, Natura Medica Ltd. He developed a entirely new series of homeopathic potencies and is the author of numerous articles and the books :The Potency. Advanced Prescribing in Homeopathy, Homeopathy through the Chinese looking glass: Homeosiniatry revisited,. Dynamic Gemmotherapy and, Drainage, Detoxification and Organotherapy. His books are available from www.lulu.com Visit Dr. Rozencwajg at his website: www.naturamedica.co.nz